Passing 5,400 feet we heard a muffled pow/blam, had immediate white smoke in the cabin, and a spray pattern of oil on the windscreen. I put out an immediate mayday, and opened the window to clear the smoke.

Experience throttling up the Allison J35 turbojet engine, igniting the afterburner to produce a fuel flow that would empty a car's gas tank in 22 seconds, or debate the merits of the early Allison V1710 and Rolls-Royce Merlin engines at the interactive Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust Allison Branch museum in Indianapolis.

Airshow performer Spencer Suderman appears to have set a new world record with an 81-turn, three-minute-plus inverted flat spin in a Pitts S–2B that took him from 23,000 feet to less than 2,000 feet over the California desert.